President's Proposed Budget Includes Cash For California Infrastructure, Drought
WASHINGTON (KCBS)— President Barack Obama proposed an almost $4 trillion federal budget on Tuesday that includes a few nuggets for California, but it also cuts money the Golden State had been counting on.
The president's budget calls for $300 billion in new infrastructure spending, some of which could be used to help pay for high speed rail in California. It would also allocate money to expand California's federal parklands and would protect the Delta.
Deputy White House Budget Director Brian Deese said it also calls on Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform.
"There are important fiscal consequences to passing that kind of immigration reform. The budget outlines that immigration reform could reduce the deficit by $158 billion by the next decade," Deese said.
But the budget gives California $52 million less to help jail undocumented inmates.
Deese said the plan includes $1 billion for new technology to deal with drought in California and would free up a disaster relief account to fight wildfires.
"[It's] a budget mechanism that could fund the unpredictable costs when we have very high fire costs here," Deese said.
House Republicans oppose much of this budget and will offer their own proposal next month.